Maci's 11-year-old son, Bentley, was dieting on Tuesday's episode of 'Teen Mom OG' for wrestling.
Maci Bookout is responding to criticism from Tuesday night's episode of Teen Mom OG. In the episode, the reality star is helping her 11-year-old son, Bentley, train for his wrestling competition and has lengthy discussions about his "strict" diet to drop a weight class.
The 28-year-old Tennessee native took to Twitter following the episode, writing, "In reference to tonight's episode-I have never and will never convince Bentley to 'cut' weight. After wrestling his first two tournaments in the 75 lb class weighing in at 72-he came to me & said he wanted to wrestle at 70. I told him that's fine, but you WILL NOT 'cut' weight."
She added, "I will lay out a healthy scheduled diet for u, u can eat salads, grilled chicken, veggies, good carbs-instead of pizza, doritos and candy bars. Through the season, he decided he didn't like it-I told him that's OK! U can go back to usual and wrestle at 75 which is what he did."
She later told one commenter that her brother was a collegiate wrestler, giving her knowledge in "healthy weight maintenance."
In the episode, Bentley is practicing his wrestling moves while Maci discusses his desire to go down a weight class.
"He has to stick to a diet to make his weight class if he wants to achieve his goal," she says.
Bentley later tells his mom that he's "hungry," to which she replies, "You know what you can eat."
When he asks for grilled chicken, she replies, "You have lost your mind! He weighs like 74,75, so now he's on a very strict good healthy calorie diet. Lots of water and workouts to actually cut weight. And as long as he uses the bathroom every day, you cut like a pound when you do that."
Maci's ex and Bentley's father, Ryan Edwards, clearly disagrees with her during the episode, telling his son, "You know what's going to happen, you're going to stunt your growth and when it's really time to get bigger you're just going to be a late bloomer and it's going to suck for you."
Ryan later talks with his wife, Mackenzie, saying of Bentley, "I hope he quits cutting pounds... he's 11 years old. It's not high school... it can't be healthy, you know."
Regardless, Maci remains committed to Bentley's diet and hard work in wrestling, saying the sport "saved him mentally" following his father's struggles with addiction in recent years.
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